Whats the best way to refresh and expand knowledge of math sufficient to understand theoretical physics?”
Like you, I took a fair number of math courses in college, well beyond calculus and into partial and ordinary differential equations. I also took a variety of physics courses that are, today, sadly outdated. I admire your desire to bone up in the area. I’ve harbored similar thoughts from time to time. I have a number of friends who are scientists, so I think I can offer some insight. Here are my thoughts on what to do: First, if you want to converse with physicists at more than a cocktail-party level, you need to read the current journals to understand what research is currently being done, who is doing it and where (half of what scientists talk about is people), and what’s new and exciting in the field. There are several levels of periodicals, and you can jump in at whatever level you like. First, there are publications for the general public. The best of these is Scientific American, which has articles written by real scientists rather than journalists. The articles aren’t dumbed-dow
